The diamond and emerald tiara was presented to Queen Victoria in 1845 as a gift from Prince Albert who designed it for her. The tiara, made to the prince’s specifications by Joseph Kitching for £1,150, is set with a band of cushion-shaped diamonds and step-cut emeralds and a graduated row of 19 inverted pear-shaped emeralds. Victoria loved the diadem and remarked in her diary about much taste Albert had with her jewellery.
The tiara was made to match a necklace with 9 clusters of emeralds surrounded by cushion-shaped diamonds; a brooch with a 20-carat emerald; and, diamond and emerald pendant earrings which the prince had already given his wife. Victoria is seen wearing the tiara, with or without the parure, in several portraits.
After Victoria’s death, the parure ended up with Louise, Princess Royal, the daughter of Edward VII who married Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, and it has remained in the Fife family since. The collection was loaned to Historic Royal Palaces for their Victoria Revealed exhibition in 2018.
